£1000 electric bill

archie99

Hello

I have been with the Utility Warehouse for 3 years, never has my electric meter been read.

It was read in July and i was horrified to find a letetr to say i had been using more electric than estimated and i owed £1000, this has now been takeb by direct debit,

i admit i have never checked the estimated readings but is there any obligation on them to check meter or my local energy meter reading company, presume it is my fault becasue i never checked and phoned the readings in.

Also because of this it is my intention to change.

Is the utility warehouse still the cheapest for gas and electric
my phone is also routed through them from days of telecom plus but calls go via 18866

any advice would be gratly appreciated

thank you

trets77

simple process to find out if they are cheapest for you check main site

is your meter inside or out ??? if in they will keep estimating if they keep missing you. don,t know if they obliged to read your meter. but the people that read meter tend to just read meter regardless of which supplier you are with.


how long did it take for this £1000 to build up.

thats a lot for a under estimate, you aren,t leaving your emersion heater on by accident are you ( I did for 2 months before i noticed once.....costly indeed)

you can arrange to pay this debt off monthly contact them they HAVE to be understanding by law

Gayle1983

You may be interested to know that a recent Ofegm decision means that from July 2006, energy companies should not bill customers for usage which is more than 2 years old where they are at fault for not billing you.

I have a client who received a bill for £3500 and I have managed to get £2500 wiped off it! :j

archie99

i thought they were meant to be read once a year
they have taken it by direct debit now in any event in full so no chance of getting it back
thanks anyway

chris73

One reason why I don't subscribe to the direct debit mentality. Hey it may be more flexible (for them!) and it may attract discounts but I prefer the old fashioned approach of sending a cheque!.

I don't pay Tescos a monthly sum in advance for food which I won't be collecting for a month, so I pay my energy bills by cheque, quarterly AFTER i've used it, and only when i've had the chance to scrutinise the figures, and where estimated send them an actual reading and request an accurate bill!.

I suppose i'm in the minority with this, but i've never been overcharged because I always make sure the reading on the bills ties up to the reading on the meters and I don't write a cheque for a penny more!.

I often read of people saying how they are in credit with their Energy supplier by £20 or £50 or even £70+ like its a GOOD thing!. Huh!, wouldn't that cash be better earning YOU interest or treating YOUR family to a day or a meal out?

If you want / need to budget, then set up a standing order to transfer the same amount of cash as you currently pay your energy supplier into a dedicated current account which pays interest, then when the quarterly bills arrive, send 'em a cheque from that account.

Cardew

chris73 wrote:

One reason why I don't subscribe to the direct debit mentality. Hey it may be more flexible (for them!) and it may attract discounts but I prefer the old fashioned approach of sending a cheque!.

I don't pay Tescos a monthly sum in advance for food which I won't be collecting for a month, so I pay my energy bills by cheque, quarterly AFTER i've used it, and only when i've had the chance to scrutinise the figures, and where estimated send them an actual reading and request an accurate bill!.

I suppose i'm in the minority with this, but i've never been overcharged because I always make sure the reading on the bills ties up to the reading on the meters and I don't write a cheque for a penny more!.

I often read of people saying how they are in credit with their Energy supplier by £20 or £50 or even £70+ like its a GOOD thing!. Huh!, wouldn't that cash be better earning YOU interest or treating YOUR family to a day or a meal out?If you want / need to budget, then set up a standing order to transfer the same amount of cash as you currently pay your energy supplier into a dedicated current account which pays interest, then when the quarterly bills arrive, send 'em a cheque from that account.

Many companies provide a cheaper tariff if you pay by Direct Debit.

Also lots of people have quite a substantial debit balance so are saving interest - not that it is a lot of money either way.

How the interest on £20, £50 or even £70+ would treat my family to a meal or day out I do not know. Taking the unlikely scenario that you are £70 in credit the whole year, you would save, what, £3 in interest in the year - not a lot of days out and meals on that I suggest.

Lastly it simply easier to be on a direct debit, no cheques to write, letters to post, postage to pay. I have about a dozen monthly DD and a couple of annual DDs and have had them for many years, I never have a problem with any of them and if I did there is a binding guarantee that my bank will sort it out.

chris73

How the interest on £20, £50 or even £70+ would treat my family to a meal or day out I do not know

Sorry, but I think you misunderstood the gist. Where exactly did i say interest? I said the "cash" would be better off spent elsewhere, I didn't mention anything about the interest funding days / meals out. Personally I would rather even £5 stayed in my account rather than being held / used elsewhere, even temporary as credit but thats just me!..

I would rather lose a £ 50 DD 'incentive' than to find that I was being undercharged for an extended period of time then have a nasty surprise when the bill arrived, or in the case of the OP have £1000 or debited from my account at a whim BEFORE I had any chance to contest it!.

When you add up all of those who may be overpaying their monthly payments (Which are often Estimates in themselves by the company) then I suppose that would come to a tidy sum, okay so eventually they would get the credit back, but how much interest has that earned the company in the meantime.

To take your example of £3 based on £70 overpayment in a year based on one example, multiply that a few thousand times to represent a few thousand customers, and I wouldn't mind that sort of interest, would you?

I have already mentioned that I know that i'm in the minority and old fashioned in this method, and I didn't post it in an effort to influence people, it WAS only a suggestion, but had I have been in the same situation as the OP, there is no way that the company could have taken this payment until I sent them a cheque! and that would only be after I had taken all steps of appeal!.

BTW, writing cheques isn't really that time consuming, in essence it takes less time to write a cheque than to post on a forum!.

Cardew

or in the case of the OP have £1000 or debited from my account at a whim BEFORE I had any chance to contest it!.

The OP didn't say that. He said he had a letter saying he owed £1,000. He added it it has now been taken - presumably because he didn't contest it.

Under the DD scheme you must be notified in advance of any change in your DD. - to enable it to be contested and arrange for funds to cover payment. If not you just notify bank and they recover the sum.

When you add up all of those who may be overpaying their monthly payments (Which are often Estimates in themselves by the company) then I suppose that would come to a tidy sum, okay so eventually they would get the credit back, but how much interest has that earned the company in the meantime.

To take your example of £3 based on £70 overpayment in a year based on one example, multiply that a few thousand times to represent a few thousand customers, and I wouldn't mind that sort of interest, would you?

As posted here on several occasions utility companies are 'owed' more interest from accounts in debit, than they 'owe' in interest to accounts in credit.

By the way I counted up(as a matter of interest) and I have 16 monthly direct debits. Writing cheques, posting them etc for those each would be reasonably time consuming.

Cardew

or in the case of the OP have £1000 or debited from my account at a whim BEFORE I had any chance to contest it!.

The OP didn't say that. He said he had a letter saying he owed £1,000. He added it it has now been taken - presumably because he didn't contest it.

Under the DD scheme you must be notified in advance of any change in your DD. - to enable it to be contested and arrange for funds to cover payment. If not you just notify bank and they recover the sum.

When you add up all of those who may be overpaying their monthly payments (Which are often Estimates in themselves by the company) then I suppose that would come to a tidy sum, okay so eventually they would get the credit back, but how much interest has that earned the company in the meantime.

To take your example of £3 based on £70 overpayment in a year based on one example, multiply that a few thousand times to represent a few thousand customers, and I wouldn't mind that sort of interest, would you?

As posted here on several occasions utility companies are 'owed' more interest from accounts in debit, than they 'owe' in interest to accounts in credit.

By the way I counted up(as a matter of interest) and I have 16 monthly direct debits. Writing cheques, posting them etc for those each would be reasonably time consuming.

Gal

Gayle1983 wrote:

You may be interested to know that a recent Ofegm decision means that from July 2006, energy companies should not bill customers for usage which is more than 2 years old where they are at fault for not billing you.

I have a client who received a bill for £3500 and I have managed to get £2500 wiped off it! :j

This is only if the customer has not recieved a bill. In this case the customer has - But his account had been estimated. Suppliers will claim Joint responsibility (They should have read the meter - However you were receiving estimated bills and there was nothing preventing you from taking a reading and calling it in).

As someone has already pointed out - Meters should be read once a year - There are exceptions - If your supplier has been sending people out to read it and you've not been there they have done all they reasonably could bar breaking in to take a reading. Therefore this puts the account holder in a precarious place as they should have taken readings within that time.

Most suppliers will take off some of the debt as a gesture of goodwill and spread the cost over the time the account has been estimated for. Just depends on who you speak to.

As in regards to Direct Debits - I can't see all the fuss over a supplier taking a DD payment - If your account is £10 in credit it comes off your next bill the interest on £10 even in a high savings account your looking at some amount like 5p or something - If your really that tight you need to get out a bit more.

Your saving more money off your bills having a DD then you will get earning interest anyways.